Sloppy Zhang

I usually keep my head down, but here we go..... About Vaj: seems okay, his posts have revealed a lot about Buddhism that I didn't know. I mean, you have to admit, with all the different groups of Buddhism and all the texts, it's hard to find the general point of it all. Vaj's posts may be long, but not as long as reading all the Buddhists texts trying to find out what they're talking about in any case, I found I have a better understand of Buddhism because of it..... About Songs: I think there's a lot of baiting, taunting, and flat out insulting that doesn't really have a place. Vaj may sometimes come off as condescending or arrogant or all "hey look my path is the best", but he does so in the process of clarifying a point. Other persons come off as condescending, arrogant, and sometimes just plain insulting.... while otherwise serving no point or function. There are other people involved in the Taoist and Buddhist stuff, but they're not in the center of trouble all the time they know who they are and, again, I come away with a little extra knowledge from each of their paths because of it. Argumentative? Maybe. Constructive? For me, yes. In Vaj's case, it's all good, I learn about Buddhism, he does what he feels is necessary to spread the word (same with pushy Jehova's witnesses). Now if someone showed up at my door in the early morning and said, "you're a pompous asshole" (*cough*songs*cough* I'd be like, "You didn't even tell me about the good word!" Anyway, moving on..... SuperEnlightenedBuddhaGuy sounds like someone created an account to start something

I think it's fine how it is.

I haven't read the entire journey to the west story, but I did read a lot of excerpts from it for a literature class. The flying thing I believe was one of the things taught to him by his master, not one of the 72 transformations. At least, the impression I got was that it was a distinct skill from the 72 transformations. Furthermore, a lot of his other abilities, like his rock hard body, came as a result of him drinking some heavenly elixir or immortality or something like that, then being cooked in some furnace, if I recall correctly. The 72 heavenly transformations were taught to him so that the heavens wouldn't strike him down for being an immortal. Apparently the deal was immortality wasn't very cool, so the heavens would try and strike you down three times (I think) before giving up and letting you be really immortal. The 72 transformations were so that you could avoid that. He was given a choice between the 32 heavenly transformations and the 72 earthly transformations, and he chose the 72 earthly transformations because, as he put it, he's always grasping for more fish. The changing the size of the staff I believe was a special ability of the staff, and not something the the Monkey King did to it. But I could be wrong on some of the details, it's been a while In any case, I don't think there's a comprehensive listing anywhere of all 72 of his abilities.

This is a very interesting discussion especially since I have recently found myself in a poetry writing class, and I really suck at writing poetry though I'm hoping my meditation and my reception to stuff will inspire me So far though I have found inspiration just by being aware of the things that are around me. The tree, the worn stop sign, the crumpled paper on the floor, the air conditioner kicking up dust, the one book on the bookshelf lying on its side.... etc etc etc And like my professor says, "how do you let the muse know when you are ready to write? BY TURNING YOUR CELL PHONES OFF!!!!!"

Yes I don't like people deleting posts either. guess you should copy them while they're there.

This advice was given to me by Freeform on another thread: In the time since I received that very excellent advice, I've found that it applies equally to things that have happened in your past, scars and/or attachments. I've realized there are a lot of things that I hold onto that I don't really need, but they are just so strong and make such an impression on your mind. Even if you have learned all you possibly can from that mistake, many times you still hold on to it. Furthermore, I'd suggest getting B.K. Frantzis' book "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body." He also has a youtube channel where he discusses dissolving in other contexts (such as dissolving images). It's a very good method, promotes relaxation, but also helps you deal with stuff I've learned a lot of things from a lot of people, so it'd take a long time for me to describe how I got to where I am now.... maybe one day I'll have a way of more succinctly explaining it, but I don't right now. I'll just point you to two things that have been some of the most helpful for me recently, and let you incorporate whatever you need into your own practice

Have you been doing naked pushups again?

"non-action" as in "effortless effort" as in "doing without doing".... understand now? The closest way that I can describe it (as I have come to understand it, which may be dead wrong), is that you flow with tao. Think about driving down the road and just as you come to a red light it turns green, you don't even get a chance to slow down. You wake up go to eat breakfast when you neighbor comes over and says he's made too many pancakes, and asks if you want any. Your iPod just got broken, and right before you go to buy a new one you find that you have won a free iPod drawing. pretty awesome (of course I could be dead wrong and I used "mundane" examples, yeah yeah, didn't get any spiritual stuff)

I don't usually exercise and do qigong back to back. I usually separate them by a couple of hours. So generally (I change my schedule every couple of days depending on what I have to do that day, y'know, life stuff ) I'll stretch and do some light exercises in the morning. Then sometime throughout the day, either in the early morning or in the late afternoon I'll go for a run. Then in the evening I'll do some more intensive body weight exercises, then some qigong for a little while. (I do mini meditations and light qigong exercises throughout the day) To be honest I'm kind of a slacker when it comes to working out so if I don't have time to fit everything in, I'll drop the body weight workout.

Well body weight exercises aren't going to give you as much resistance as weights, so if you want to increase size by lifting max capacity, that max capacity from a body weight perspective wouldn't be as high as it would be lifting weights at a gym. You could always get your own home gym set, so you'd get the resistance but without having to go to the gym Or you could strap various things to your body as you do push ups..... Push up bars like these are very handy in that they increase the range of motion that your arms must go through. When I first started working out I thought pushups were super hard, got some of these, worked out with them for a couple of weeks, and after that regular push ups were a walk in the park

If you showed up quoting only TTC passages and trying to "remind them of who they should be", then I'm sure they'll smile and nod and be like, "you are right." Then you'll walk away from that experience with.... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. What makes a cup useful? What's important in a house? EMPTINESS. You can't pour anything into a full cup, and you can't live in a solid block of wood or stone. If you show up with all the answers, you'll never learn. What's the point in even going since you already know what they should act like? As to the bowing and stuff.... there's nothing wrong with showing respect. I'm not particularly religious, but if I were to say, meet the Pope, I'd probably bow and kneel and kiss the ring or whatever. Same with the queen of England, yadda yadda yadda. It's not because I think anyone is inherently better than anyone else. It's just that it doesn't bother me. And it shouldn't bother you. If you think everyone is equal, and you need to go out of your way to spit in the face of various people in respected positions to do it, then you obviously aren't very comfortable with yourself. It's not a big deal unless you make it a big deal. There's nothing wrong with being respectful, especially since an important person (whether you regard them as such or not), is taking time out of their busy day (there are plenty of piss-ants who would love to kiss their feet and give them their children, you know) to spend time with YOU, so at the very least you could honor the customs. But you were high at the time, so it's all good

No, but seeing as how you wrote it, and I was talking to you, I didn't feel the need to try and explain the more subtle details of, well, your own story

But most black belt karate masters are slow, out of shape, and have zero self defense experience.........

Maybe not necessarily "flip flopping", but at times you have mentioned kunlun being a great practice, at other times being not so great (during the time of having some physical problems, I guess), then good, with the caveat being that it doesn't do much for physical health as much as spiritual. Sorry, haven't saved the threads/posts to prove all this so if you don't believe me, fine, but TexasNative isn't the only one who's noticed some inconsistency, so I just wanted to point that out (but I think you've explained your situation enough, that you've gone through a long process to get where you are now)

So every once in a while you come across an article on qigong, or developing high level martial arts skills, and somewhere in there the person usually says something like, "of course, only someone of the highest virtue can attain these amazing abilities." But here and there you hear people say things to the contrary. Well, not necessarily to the contrary, but they say that, when it comes down to your own moral compass, that's not necessarily as important as, say, diligent practice. What do you guys think? When it comes to cultivation, qigong, realizing emptiness, whatever your practice may entail, does virtue play a part in it? What are the virtues you should have? Does virtue trump practice? Will a "bad person" be turned away or hindered after a certain while? Or can someone, even someone with the not-so best intent, with diligent practice, reach the highest levels and reap the rewards?

So today I came into close and personal contact with aspects of myself that were really not very pleasant. I mean, like, seriously, I'm very shaken. Tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't, turned on all the lights, now I'm listening to music and stuff. Anyway, was wondering how you really deal with stuff that comes up over the course of cultivation? Like you always hear people say, "this will turn up deep stuff from within you, and it won't be pretty." And all along I was like, "okay, well that makese sense." But now it's actually HAPPENED, and I'd really like to know how you deal with something like this, now that it's come up? At first I was pretty shaken, like I said, (even still am a bit ) but then I started wondering how I really "deal" with it. Dissolve? (I do mostly B.K. Frantzis' method) What do I dissolve, the images, the feelings, everything? Or do I accept it as part of myself, that there's negative and potential for bad in me just like with everyone else? Do I try and overcome it, or accept it? Both? Find a way to transmute it? Even though I'm using some happy emotes, I'm still pretty scared, and probably not going back to sleep tonight, even though I've got a full day of work tomorrow (or.... today ) The thing is, I think this is my first real "break", "first encounter" with something that I can really work it, and I wanna make it count, I don't want it to go to waste.... but I don't know what to do.

On the teacher vs. vid debate: Depends on your martial training history, your amount of dedication, ability to read between the lines (a product of experience in the martial arts), and another helping of dedication. Sure, having a master instructor who's trained like a monk for 40 years is great. But not everyone has that luxury. Study what you can, and as long as you do it with a passion (I mean, seriously passionate, I mean like, you think about it every moment day and night) you'll be fine.

I suggest you visit the bullshido.net forums and look around in their Chinese Martial Art discussions on the internal arts. There are a few websites here or there that upload videos from China and around the world of Sanshou competitions in which tai chi fighters have entered. The videos specifically show tai chi techniques being used in application, comparing the form, demonstration, and actual sanshou match. The guys over on bullshido talk about these vids. Despite bullshido's reputation, they don't care what you practice as long as you put it to use, and those vids have convinced even the bullshido guys that taiji has the goods, as long as you work for it. In short, when it comes down to it, it depends on how you train and if you train to implement what you've learned. Taiji was developed to be an efficient martial art, and its history has produced some good fighters. But once it was taken and taught as a "health" system, first to members of imperial families, then to the public.... eh, well you know how it goes. About a year and a half ago I went around looking for videos demonstrating REAL taiji skill, wish I had the links, but they're out there if you really want to look and if you really care. Don't want to spread rumors, but what I hear is that Frantzis spent some serious time training and fighting, really testing his internal skills. I've heard he's supposed to have a bagua book coming out, but don't know about release dates.

Lol, I don't think many would consider that kiai master to be what they have in mind when talking of an IMA master. is one of my favorite demonstrations of taiji. Not a full blown fight, but a good example. Hmm, yeah, that fight was kind of disappointing. But I think it should also be mentioned that that fight was held under western boxing rules (a rule imposed by whoever held the fight, not the masters themselves as I understand). Meaning, no real grappling, no ground fighting, no kicks, etc. At least that's what I've heard from doing some research on fthe fight.

Update Last night I recreated the situation that freaked me out as close as possible. Visualized and felt everything that I saw and felt when it happened. Then I took the advice from this thread: stared it in the face, realized that everyone has that part to them (they just don't always get around to opening that "present"), and that it's something I need to accept. Opened myself up to it, trying to stay as non judgmental as possible, and it pretty much dissolved itself. Really had to struggle to visualize and feel the same things I felt just moments before. I think one of the key things is realizing its internal, definitely. There's little you can do as long as you think its external, as long as you think it's some kind of foreign being. Once you "bring it into you", once you realize its in you, well then you can deal with it. So thank you everyone, I feel like I've taken a very necessary step, I learned a great deal from this experience and this forum. Long or short, I read all the posts here and I took all of their advice to heart, and its helped me a great deal, and hopefully will continue to help in the future

So, do you believe it's around or not? I don't necessarily think there's a New World Order out there secretly guiding the world (well, possibly, I've seen a lot of info about their plans, some of it pretty compelling). But you mentioned stuff about Obama, and it is true. Once you know where you look, you can see it. Sometimes it's scary. I recall reading something along the lines of "the best slaves are the ones that don't even know they are slaves." But I think this is probably closer to the truth. If there is a New World Order, I don't think they are any more enlightened or awakened than anyone else. They are just more aware of how to manipulate humans. It doesn't mean they themselves can't be manipulated (!) it just means that they are in a position of being able to manipulate people, and they use that position on a regular basis. And yeah, for the people who can't be manipulated.... they're usually off doing their own thing anyway Or they just let people do whatever they want. I see propaganda and manipulative stuff around all the time, occasionally I'll point it out to someone, but do they ever really change? No not really. Heck, even if I know I'm being brought in by some manipulative entertainment, I still go along with it from time to time

Hmm, yikes. As much as I would love to help, I really have no experience with this sort of thing, everything I have experienced have always been reflections of what's in myself. Some people say that EVERYTHING is a reflection of what's in you, in which case grounding and dissolving would really be the best way to go, others may say there are definite entities that are external from you, in which case there'd be some process to dealing with that entity. As I only have experienced the former and have no way of confirming or denying the latter, I can only say that one of the best things you can do is consolidate your own willpower. KNOW that you can overcome this. In an earlier post you said stuff about your own fear- well that kind of fear can really tie you down in situations like this. KNOW that you can overcome this. Know that you WILL overcome this. That's all I can really say, though I know that probably doesn't help much

Also, isn't there that saying that "crazy people don't think they are crazy"? So if you start asking yourself, "am I crazy?" Then you probably AREN'T going crazy

A lot of good discussion went on while I was sleeping SereneBlue, I'm gonna answer some of the questions you asked, and how I go through it, but Pietro did a great job of responding already This post might run kind of long, but I want to convey my attitudes in general and towards the experience in depth, for anyone who wants to read First of all, I should mention that I am doing it all more or less myself. I don't have a teacher. The only way that it can be construed as not totally doing it by myself, is there's sort of an introspective club at school that I go to, have some neat discussions, mostly about the meaning of life and stuff, pseudo philosophy, sometimes spiritual sometimes not, every once in a while we have a guest speaker some in, an author, sometimes a professor, I get a chance to talk to them. Sometimes a meditation teacher comes in and I have a chance to talk to them one on one, but I have no formal teacher. I also do a LOT of reading, on the Bums, in every book I can find, eastern and western. I don't keep it just to spiritualism, I also look in psychology, research science, how the brain works. Furthermore, here's my attitude to a lot of things: I must experience it myself Basically, what I mean by this is that you read a lot about people seeing "hell realms", seeing ghosts and demons, getting attacked by demons while you are sleep paralyzed, visions by reptiles and angels, meeting spirit guides, etc etc etc. I read about it, but I try not to let it paralyze me with fear. I haven't experienced that stuff, I don't know if I WILL experience or if I will not. But I won't think about it until I have experienced it. With training and with more clearing and working through some of my stuff, maybe I will open up to ghosts, maybe I will not. When the time comes I will find out. Until then, I don't worry about it. I should also refer you back to one of Pietro's posts, the one where he says in big red letters "stop". A strong imagination is good, thinking about the future and what it holds is good, but don't become obsessed with it and let it paralyze you with fear. Acknowledge that some people have experienced it a certain way, but realize that, first and foremost, YOU MUST EXPERIENCE IT YOURSELF before you can be qualified to assess the validity of other peoples' findings. I haven't seen ghosts, demons, or hell realms, so I can't say if they do or do not exist or if I will or will not see them. It's the same thing with past lives. I've done a few things like tarot and stuff to try to read into past lives, looked at astrology and numerology. Got some rather interesting things. But I've also studied on the scientific part, chance, how cards will fall out, psychology of how the brain interprets the generalities that many tarot guides present for each card. I've tried a few past live regressions in lucid dreams, didn't go too far. Tried to contact spirit guides in lucid dreams, also didn't get me too far (the answers I got were along the lines of "not here, look somewhere else.") So when it comes to any karma I have, I'm not sure. I MAY have certain karmic things attached to me from something I did, but I haven't been able to discover it myself so I don't know. It's hard to explain, your mind has to acknowledge two things as true and false at the same time, sort of like "doublethink" from 1984. Furthmore, as I said before, I read. A lot. I read what other people have gone through, some people have gone through some real freaky stuff. One person in particular I read about was Aleister Crowley. I don't really agree with some of the choices he made, or with everything he said. But there are some things to admire in him, mostly the courage to keep going. He DID it. There are a lot of "magicians" out there who talk a good game, but Crowley went out and did it. Not always the results I'd like, but that's what I keep in mind whenever I have some sort of experience. I have to do it, have the courage to do it and go through with it. Crowley also said stuff like every experience goes into building who you are. Well a lot of people said that. I keep that in mind as well whenever I go through scary stuff. Now on the topic of scary stuff, this is the scariest thing I have had happen to me. Is it the scariest that will happen to me? According to the stories, no, but like I said, I'm not further down the road yet, so I can't worry about that stuff I must experience it myself. My usual attitude to stuff, when it happens to me, is "go with the flow", don't get worked up about it, stay calm, observe what is happening without judgment. I posted a thread a long time ago about some other experience that I had after a lucid dream. As it happened yes, it was freaky, but I was determined not to freak out, and stay present through the experience. It passed. I didn't know what it was, but it didn't scare me. This, though, was MUCH harder to stay present through. I really wanted to stay present through it. As it was happening, I thought about how I needed to stay present, to stay relaxed, to ground it out, to dissolve it, that this experience is the kind of experience that I always wanted to have, that it was a sign of progress, that it was a hurdle that was just the next step along the path, from "talking a good game" to actually playing a good game. I had to let the negative go, and also I had to let my "ambitions" to get through it go (as it was very ego driven, like "haha look at what I can do"). In the end through, I couldn't do it. After it had ended it was still so fresh in my mind, I really couldn't let go. Tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't, got freaked out, and turned on all the lights, then stayed up all through the rest of the day thinking about it. The posts here really helped. Thinking about the experience more today (but trying not to get too attached or have it create another blockage), and as Mal said, things look better in the day, it's allowed me to see the experience a bit more clearly, beyond what I was able to see in the midst of the experience. What I experienced, the extremely negative parts of myself, were part of human nature in general. I'm starting to realize that, more likely than not, almost everyone has these aspects to themselves. It's just that I got a chance to look right at it. And that's something not many people do, and looking stuff like that in the eye can be scary. Once you get it into perspective, it's not that bad. You realize it's just another step. It gets you to the next step, and you keep moving forward. Don't be scared about anything, it's a natural progression.

All of the posts here were very reassuring, thank you everyone And I'm feeling a little bit less freaked out now. Then again, being disturbed in the dead of night, three in the morning, in a pitch black room and trying to pull it together (or dissolve it ) isn't as easy as, say, thinking it over at 3 in the afternoon in a bright and sunny day Definitely TONS of good advice in this thread though, I took something from every post, again, thank you all anyone feel free to keep responding, of course.